EL PASO, Texas – Southern Miss turned to a familiar face the Golden Eagles have sorely missed for much of the past month.

Clinging to a narrow 58-54 lead against UTEP in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA tournament Thursday at the Don Haskins Center, senior forward Michael Craig picked Vince Hunter’s pocket and finished on the other end with a slam dunk that essentially sealed the deal.

The Golden Eagles hung on for a 64-56 victory against the Miners, advancing to today’s tournament semifinals, where they will face the winner of the Louisiana Tech-Charlotte quarterfinal matchup at 5:30 p.m. today. Southern Miss improved to 27-5 overall, while UTEP falls to 23-10.

Craig finished the game with 12 points and an even dozen rebounds. But it was the fact that he appears healthy after missing most of the past five games with an ankle injury that stood out to Southern Miss coach Donnie Tyndall.

“When he was fresh, he was arguably the best player on the floor,” he said. “His condition still isn’t where it was before the injury. But when he’s fresh and healthy, like he was tonight, he makes a lot of good things happen.”

Craig credited the work he put in while he was hobbled over the past several weeks.

“Hard work pays off,” he said. “I never quit. I never gave up. I just kept grinding, so I am where I am today.”

“Most games we’ve played, we have a very aggressive get-out and pressure the ball, matchup zone defense,” Tyndall said. “(Against UTEP in the regular season), we were able to do that. At the end of the day, we charted every possession in the first game, and we wanted to pack it in and make them make jump shots over top of us.”

That strategy paid off. The Miners shot 38.8 percent from the field. Two of UTEP’s primary shooters, Julian Washburn and C.J. Cooper, were a combined 5-for-24 from the field.

The Golden Eagles carried a 28-24 lead into halftime. The only time UTEP led was an 18-second stretch in the first half, 24-22.

However, much like crunch time in the second half, a Craig dunk ended the brief Miner advantage.

“He’s a very good rebounder, he kept balls alive that gave us second and third shot opportunities, and he kicked it out for timely threes,” Tyndall said of Craig. “As good as Matt Bingaya has been the last three weeks, he’s still a freshman trying to find his way in his first conference tournament game. I thought Mike played like a fifth-year senior does — with toughness and composure.”